I just follow the usual rules I always followed and I cannot get the user folder moving to my external SSD.
Is the procedure different to Intel Mac's?
Is the procedure different to Intel Mac's?
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relocating the user folder on a M1 mini is more difficult than expected
- Thread starter BATman.Berlin
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Leave the user folder "in place" on the internal drive.
Move your "large libraries" ONLY (such as the Photos library, etc) to an external, and select them to be the default library (for each app) instead of the one that's in your home folder.
Move your "large libraries" ONLY (such as the Photos library, etc) to an external, and select them to be the default library (for each app) instead of the one that's in your home folder.
It may be a function of the T2 chip on the M1 - for increased security?
I _used_ to move my user folder in the old days but found it caused...long term issues.
'Music' now lives on an external drive, but 'Photos' is still on the boot drive as Catalina caused too many crashes. Apple Support looked at the 'Photos' issue for ages and thought it was best to just leave 'Photos' in the boot user folder.
Hmm... anyone moved 'Photos' to another drive under Big Sur? I'd like to get the space back on my boot drive.
I _used_ to move my user folder in the old days but found it caused...long term issues.
'Music' now lives on an external drive, but 'Photos' is still on the boot drive as Catalina caused too many crashes. Apple Support looked at the 'Photos' issue for ages and thought it was best to just leave 'Photos' in the boot user folder.
Hmm... anyone moved 'Photos' to another drive under Big Sur? I'd like to get the space back on my boot drive.
It works fine on Big Sur. I have an external SSD for evaluating Apple's latest macOS dog chow. My current "practice" drive is a clone of my Mojave boot drive upgraded to Big Sur.
All of my large media directories have lived on an external drive since 2010. That year I bought the mac Mini 2010 server which had two 500GB hard drives. I put all of my media content (music, videos, photos) on the second spinner.
I have since migrated several times and my current system is a Mac mini 2018 with all of my media directories on an external 12GB spinner. It works fine with both the internal Mojave boot drive and the external SSD "practice" drive with Big Sur.
For editing large media files, it's still worth using the fast internal SSD. My Mac mini 2018's internal 1TB SSD is normally only at 11% capacity. If I need to work on a large project, there's plenty of fast storage available.
As fishrrman suggested, I have always kept my user account folder on the main boot drive. It's far more reliable and easier to manage this way.
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